Saturday, November 17, 2012

What The Heck is a Caponata? *RECIPE ALERT*

I love finding recipes that are more than just tasty, but pleasant surprises, such as the leek and swiss chard tart.  Because sometimes you look in your fridge and see stuff that you have to use up right now or risk throwing in the garbage. You look for something that isn't too fancy, probably isn't going to blow you away, will "do the trick" if you will, but ends up being something you want to keep in your recipe box forever. The recipe below is one of those.

We've been pretty good about using everything in our CSA box, but we're not perfect. However, we've been better at anticipating when we're getting overwhelmed and been proactive about it, such as last weekend's canning adventure; stay tuned for details about that.  There was one week, though, where I decided I needed to be in charge of dinner. This was during the crazy period where the BF was acting as personal chef, dishwasher, and housekeeper, and I wanted to give him a break. I took a look at the fridge, grabbed a cacophony of veggies that needed to be used, including bell peppers and an on-the-verge-of-being-tired eggplant, and headed up to his place.

I then scrambled for a recipe.

Yeah, yeah, I wasn't as prepared as I needed to be. What else is new. But as he got home from work and began to wind down, I realized I needed something easy and fast. And eggplant and peppers and onions- surely there had to be zillions of recipes around the interwebz to help out. Much to my surprise, the "hey, this should work just fine" recipe that I quickly settled on shocked us both by how balanced and delicious it was. It was listed as an appetizer-y, salad-y, you could say caponata (does that work here? Yeah, I think it does. Let's call it caponata-y) food, but with some improv I turned it into a dinner sandwich so amazing that we pounced on the leftovers for seconds. It's now in the permanent repertoire.

The recipe, of course, is not listed below as I found it. In my creature-of-habit haze I automatically sliced the eggplant into half-inch slices and sweated it out with salt before I noticed that the recipe called for me to roast the eggplant whole. This, in turn, caused me to have to adjust how I cooked it. It worried me that the pieces looked a little dry after pulling it out of the broiler, but that was just on the surface. Once I chopped the slices into tiny cubes, I realized the interior was still juicy (well, as juicy as an eggplant can be... perhaps juicy is the wrong word?) and the texture still worked perfectly in the finished product. It also saved some cooking time, as well. Also, part of me wonders if roasting it whole would have even been the best way to do it: eggplant is a very bitter veggie on it's own, which is why taking the time to sweat it out is key. I fear the bitterness would have remained if I had just thrown the whole thing in the broiler.  If you wish to try it though- just prick the eggplant with a fork, roast for 30 minutes, then peel and chop- let me know how it turns out.

Below is the recipe as I made it in sandwich form. Capers are an option, but we didn't have any and I thought it was awesome. The BF thought capers could have worked, so again, if you wish, try it and let me know how it turns out. And I bet if you let it marinate in the fridge overnight it's even better the next day. We just thought it was too tasty to wait and find out. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again as a meal, but it's original caponata-y, appetizer-y intended purpose, topped on toasted slices of french bread or water crackers, will surely make it on the appetizer menu of my next dinner party. Holidays, anyone?
Eggplant & Red Pepper Caponata-y Sandwich
  • makes 3 sandwiches
  • medium eggplant (about 1 1/4 pounds) 
  • medium red bell pepper
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
  • 3 tablespoons capers (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • garlic cloves, minced 
  • 4-6 pieces whole wheat bread
  • 3 slices mozarella or provolone cheese

Preparation

  1. 1. Slice eggplant into half-inch slices; season both sides liberally with salt and set aside for a half hour
  2. 2. Preheat broiler
  3. 3. Cut bell pepper in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten with hand. Broil 15 minutes or until blackened. Place in a zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 15 minutes. 
  4. 4. While bell pepper is steaming in the plastic bag, rinse salt off of eggplant slices and pat dry. Lay slices on the baking sheet and broil for 10-15 minutes, until beginning to wrinkle 
  5. 5. Peel pepper, then chop pepper and eggplant into small pieces. Do not mince.
  6. 6. Combine eggplant, bell pepper, onion, and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl; toss well.
  7. 7. For sandwiches, lay 2 slices of bread in toaster or broiler; top one piece of bread with a slice of cheese. Toast until cheese is bubbly
  8. 8. Top cheesy bread slice with caponata and complete with other slice of bread

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Late Fall Musings

I've been reflecting that there is so much to write about, and yet, so little in some ways. While I have a few recipe alerts, I also feel that I should be waxing poetic about something in the news as it relates to food, or agriculture, or preservatives, or what not. It's a good thing that I was running around like a chicken with it's you-know-what cut off when that study came out about organic veggies not being healthier. I did a lot of reading and following up on that study, how it was conducted (badly), what it was missing (a lot), and what else it was missing (the big picture). I have a lot of opinions on it which could be a 3 page manifesto. But don't worry, I won't go off on a rant about that. At least, not now.

I think this post is more of a thoughtful one, the kind of post that I had originally intended this blog to be: a journey through my Au Naturale "conversion", if you will. It's a post dedicated to the idea that having nothing to write about is, in and of itself, something to write about. It's the fact that I look back at what I've been eating over the past few months and my diet is somewhat unremarkable. And that- again, in and of itself- is remarkable. At least by other people's standards, but now no longer by my own.

"Okay, JC," I can hear all of you collectively sigh with accompanying eye roll. "Stop being so elusive and just say what it is you want to say."

What I've realized is that over the past few months, as much as I have been able to control it, my diet has been completely Au Naturale. I eat mainly what has come in our farm box or available at the market, supplemented by basic ingredients commonly found in grocery store bulk bins. The rare packaged goods are scary-word free. Much to my surprise, I'm also eating way more vegetarian than I ever have before. That is mainly due to the fact that we won't buy any meat that isn't raised humanely and properly (read: pastured), and considering the best meat can only be found at the Sunday market and at a premium price, it's become a special occasion type of thing. Long gone are the days where I bought packages and packages of steaks and chicken breasts to throw in the freezer. I've been better even in restaurants, sticking mostly with sustainable seafood or black bean burgers, but I'm not perfect. The lack of meat in the house means I'm now craving chicken on menus (I used to make chicken at home on an almost nightly basis so I ignored it in restaurants). Don't worry, though. I don't plan on becoming a full-blown vegetarian. In fact, I've had such a strong craving for red meat lately, I've been dreaming of the 2 pasture-raised strip steaks I snatched up just yesterday to enjoy with an awesome chimichurri sauce I haven't made in a long time. Mmm.... meat....

So for me, this is boring. And boring is exciting. I remember when I first started and I obsessed over every little thing, kept feeling like I was slipping up here and there. As I mentioned, I'm not perfect. But I'm feeling pretty good. In fact, while I'm not looking forward to my farm box ending in another month and a half, I am kinda looking forward to the day in late December when I get confused upon walking into a Whole Foods, having not had to shop for groceries, traditionally speaking, since May.

Reading this over, it almost sounds like a farewell post. Fear not, loyal readers! Much fun shall still be had with this blog. I've also realized that I don't necessarily need to write a novel each time I post; if anything, I should take a note from tumblr and keep this short and frequent. But as we've all figured out by now, I like to write. A lot. And so I shall continue....